Awakenings Page #9

REV. 10/13/89 p.54

LEONARD:

I'm afraid to close my eyes . . . If

(y\ I close my eyes ...

He hesitates, as if saying it may make the fear more real.

SAYER:

... you'll sleep. And when you

wake up in the morning, it will be

the next morning. I promise.

Sayer's smile tries to assure them both that it will happen

just that way. He excuses himself, leaving Leonard with his

mother, joins Miss Costello by the door and glances back. Mrs.

Lowe is stroking Leonard's head as she hums a lullaby.

100. INT. ROOM ADJACENT TO EXAMINATION ROOM -MORNING 100.

Sayer comes in with some books, sets them on Miss Costello's

desk and crosses to a closet.

SAYER:

I didn't sleep, did you?

MISS COSTELLO:

Does it look like it? .

Sayer hangs up his jacket and slips into a lab coat.

SAYER:

Do you know if Leonard's awake?

v

She smiles and points toward the adjoining examination room.

101. INT. THE EXAMINATION ROOM -MORNING 101.

Showered and shaved and groomed and bright-eyed, Leonard sits

listening to his own heartbeat with Sayer's stethoscope.

Coming in —

i SAYER

Good morning.

LEONARD:

Good morning. .

His speech is still rather flat, halting.,

SAYER:

Been waiting for me long?

LEONARD:

Yes.

REV. 10/13/89 p.55

Sayer smiles. He hands Leonard the books. History books. An

almanac.

SAYER:

Some things have happened while

you've been away. I thought you'd

be interested.

Leonard opens one carefully, reverently, and begins reading

from it to himself.

SAYER:

You don't have to read them now,

Leonard. They're yours. At your

leisure.

Leonard closes the book but holds onto it and the others like

they're gold.

LEONARD:

I used to read quite a lot.

Before. .

SAYER i

Yes, I know. .

LEONARD:

Thank you for these.

i .

Sayer nods that he's welcome.

SAYER:

Have you thought about what you'd

like to do today?

LEONARD:

Everything.

SAYER:

(smiles)

I'm not sure I can arrange that.

LEONARD:

Try.

Sayer smiles again. For a man who just yesterday learned he

has been cheated out of the greater"-part of his life, Leonard

seems to have recovered extraordinarily.

SAYER:

Let's approach it this way. What . " .

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REV. 10/13/89 p.55A

(continuity only)

LEONARD:

I'd like to go outside.

101A. EXT. BAINBRIDGE HOSPITAL -DAY 101A

Sayer and Leonard emerge from the hospital and move under trees

along a path toward the parking lot. At a point, the doctor

realizes his patient is no longer at his side; he's several

steps back, feeling the sunshine on his skin.

(p\ 102. EXT. PARKING LOT, BAINBRIDGE -MORNING 102

Though it is only a Toyota, its dashboard, to Leonard,

resembles something out of Jules Verne. He allows Sayer tobuckle his seatbelt for him and watches with fascination as

Sayer performs the "complex" preparatory sequence necessary,

apparently, to make the car go.

The car pulls away. Above, framed in a second story window of

one of the buildings, stands a lone figure looking out —

Leonard's mother.

103. INT. SAYER'S CAR -MOVING -MORNING 103

Tight on the radio. Sayer switches it on. To Leonard's

amazement, classical music fills the interior

and CONTINUES OVER:

104. EXT. THE BRONX -MOVING SHOTS -MORNING 104

Billboards advertising color televisions and electric shavers.

Buses which have grown over the decades to a behemoth scale.

"Ultra-modern" housing projects and gas stations.

"Futuristic" cars.

Leonard cannot imagine a more enthralling re-introduction to

the world and stares at it all with wonder. Everywhere he

looks there is something "extraordinary."

LEONARD:

What a wonderful place The Bronxhas become.

The music CONTINUES OVER:

' ' ' *

105. INT/EXT. NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDENS -DAY 105

A rose. ,

Leonard puts his face close to it to appreciate its fragrance.

He touches its petals gently, explores them, and is quietly

astonished by the tactile sensation.

Sayer watches. He, too, can appreciate wonders of the realworld, especially those of a botanical nature, but not with, thepurity or intensity Leonard can.

Pulling back reveals them in the middle of a vast garden of

countless thousands of roses.

106. 06. INT. SAYER'S CAR -MOVING -DAY 106

Leonard turns the radio dial from the classical station to

another playing a very different kind of music, and listens to

it bemused but intrigued. It's John Lennon singing "A DAY IN

THE LIFE" .

and it CONTINUES OVER:

107. EXT. PARK -THE BRONX -LATER -DAY 107

Children playing flag-football on an expanse of grass. Dogs

running around, nannies with prams, lovers.

A disk, a frisbee, falls at Leonard's feet. He retrieves it

but has no idea what it is or what to do with it. Sayer

demonstrates the wrist action with an invisible one. Leonard

doesn't get it. Sayer takes it from him and flings it

pathetically not halfway back to its owners.

The music CONTINUES OVER:

108. EXT. STREET CORNER JOINT -THE BRONX -LATER -DAY 108.

Leonard watches with interest a Carvel ice cream machine. He

and Sayer are handed cones and Leonard's attention moves to a

girl wearing an unbelievably short skirt.

Her boyfriend stares at Leonard. Sayer tries to pull his

charge's attention elsewhere. Leonard, finally, glances away,

up, to a sound overhead.

The music CONTINUES OVER:

109. EXT. KENNEDY AIRPORT -DAY 109

A 747 roaring down a runway. At the edge of it, it lifts off

and thunders over Sayer and Leonard and the parked Toyota.

Exhilerated, Leonard waves.

The music CONTINUES OVER:

110. OMITTED 110

111. EXT. THE BRONX / CITY ISLAND -DAY 111

An expressway. The Toyota traveling at "astounding" speed,

passing a sign that reads CITY ISLAND.

R!V. 10/13/89 p.58

Boats and fish markets and lush vegetation. Paradise compared

to the Bronx. The Toyota turns down a side road near the water t

and into the driveway of Sayer's small wooden house.

w''.••.. ''

And the mus ic ends.

112. INT. SAYER'S KITCHEN / DINING ROOM -DAY 112.

Tea bags steeping in a pot on a cluttered kitchen counter.

Sayer, exhausted from the day, hunts in vain through packing

boxes on the floor for crackers, cookies, something he can

offer his guest.

He keeps glancing in at Leonard, who's wandering around the

dining room, navigating around packing boxes, to browse at the

spines of books. Noticing Sayer watching

LEONARD:

You just moved here.

SAYER:

Yeah. Well, five years ago. ,.

Sayer shrugs, disappears into the kitchen a moment . . . before ;

peekingback in to see what Leonard is lookingat now: i

pg g asmall

framed photograph of a boy with a toy sailboat and a forlorn

expression posed in front of a curtain; the boat obviously a

photography studio prop.

LEONARD:

Your son?

SAYER:

Me, actually.

'„" t

LEONARD:

(looking closely at '

the photograph)

You seem uncomfortable.

SAYER:

I probably was.

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